Idée Fixe
by LunagaleMaster
Summary: What if Danny was truly obsessed with keeping his friends and family safe? Obsessions take over a person, corrupting goods souls and innocent minds into something unrecognizable, making one's entire existence dependent on that one need. If Danny was truly obsessed with protection… well, his story would not be of a hero, to say the least.
1. Prologue

This idea has been brewing for awhile. I won't update this often, it's mostly an experimentation. CoaSP is giving me issues, so this was created. Hope you enjoy!

Posted: 12/17/2015

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. All rights go to Nickelodeon and the show's writer, Butch Hartman. Please support the official release.

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}PROLOGUE{

There's a tale of a boy, a semi-ordinary boy, who gained powers of death and used these abilities for good. With white hair and glowing green eyes, he held himself with a supernatural confidence and strength that spoke to those with much less courage and held them close in a way that they finally felt safe in this crazy world. He became a hero in the eyes of the common, a devil to those who sought to harm, and an Atlas to the world, holding all of what seemed good and pure on his small, surprisingly strong shoulders.

Yes, this is the tale of a hero, a hero that would have been known for ages on end until time worn away every statue and the grandeurs of his actions would be lost in the forgetful memories of old.

This is the story of a hero.

But, this is not that tale.

The story started the same in a way, at least in all the important ways. We know how it began, the tale of a semi-normal boy with not so usual parents. Parents who were trying to do and find the impossible, to open a portal to the world of ghosts. His parents were geniuses. However, they were geniuses without any common sense, able to defy laws of old and perceptions of society without wondering about the consequences for disrupting the balance of the world.

But of course, our story is not about the parents, it's about the boy and _his_ destiny.

It started the same. Three teenagers fueled by arrogance and naiveté of their youth. Three teenagers curious about the strange little lab in the basement and the huge hole in the wall. The dangerous dressing girl of the group coercing the semi-normal boy to explore the vast cavern, telling tales of exploration, mystery, and excitement without any thought of the 'what if something went wrong'.

Not that any of this was her fault, of course. It was an accident, nothing more nothing less, where the fault laid to no one and everyone.

For both stories.

And so, the semi-normal boy agreed to explore, sealing his fate.

We all know what came next. There was a click of a button, the wide eyed expression, as the young boy's heart skipped a beat. He looked around only to see the tunnel glow brilliant green around him. It was here he knew there was no escape, as he froze shocked by the turn of events.

A flash of light, three blood curdling screams, two of fear, one of pain, all three horrifying, belonging to a scripted horror movie, not in real life. Tears of regret and pain streaming down the dangerous girls' face and the shaking head of the geeky boy, uncomprehending with wide terrified eyes.

It would soon be over. For a moment there was nothing but swirling green of the portal, a repressive pressure of horror, pressing into both teens, as they wondered 'what have they done'?

The duo suddenly freezing in absolute stillness, as a hand emerged from the now active portal. It clawing out, gripping the sides of metal, heaving himself through to get back to the land of the living. The dangerous girl and geeky boy, standing there frozen in shock at the cold of the room, their friend, and the soft glow that seeming to gleam from him.

The now forever changed boy looked up at his terror fueled friends.

But from there everything diverged, changing our story from one of heroics, to something else… almost a tragedy. Nothing was the same, or could ever be, as Fate weaved a different destiny for the boy.

Every would change, for in this tale, when the boy opened his eyes, there was not the familiar glowing green eyes that we all have known to respect, that were supposed to strive for goodness, that were filled with justice and eventual protection of the _entire_ world.

No, when the now, forever changed boy looked up, the duo did not mean neon green but instead, radiant red, the irises swirling with the beginnings of obsession.

Daniel "Danny" James Fenton. He was a good boy, kind and strong hearted, willing to do almost anything for his friends and family. He had an idealistic attitude, seeming to think that in the end, anyone can do good and the world could eventually be perfect if the right people were there the lead the way. But most wouldn't think he would be worth much, being the unremarkable Fenton of the four family members.

No, he was unremarkable in most ways, only his love of space and stars and unfulfilled need for adventure seemed to make him anything special.

But an obsession is an obsession. It takes over, completely overwhelming and taking over someone's life. They become an inescapable part of your existence, becoming your reason to breath, reason to love, reason to get up in the morning, reason to walk, reason to blink, your reason _to live your life._

An obsession takes over, taking something once good and pure and twisting that innocence into something unimaginable. It's not instant. No, it's a slow turn, corrupting and morphing the mind like a an addiction, an addiction of pattern and wants and ideals that the mind, no matter how hard you try to let go, holds onto tight, needing to be fulfilled.

And with an unremarkable boy, with idealistic thoughts, with the power to change the world becoming corrupted with the seeds of obsession…

Well…

…This was not the tale of a hero, anymore.

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Word Count: 928 words (not including, intro, outro, or title)

Critiques are loved! Tell me if you like something. Tell me if something sucks. Ask me questions for clarification. And no, the story will not be written like this; the prologue just wanted to be as dramatic as possible.

Anyway, tell me what you think. See you next time!

~LunagaleMaster


	2. Trop de Concentration (Part 1)

CoaSP is being stupid again, so I wrote this again. Go figure.

But hey, thanks you guys for the support! I didn't think this would get this much positive response. I wrote the prologue when I was supposed to be finishing up a final (was writing an essay on computer and got distracted). Huh. Neat. Thanks guys!

I had this part written for like three months, so I'm going to post the first half of the chapter now, and post the second half once I get more inspiration to finish it.

WARNINGS… (kind of?):

1) Dramatic story telling

2) Narrator isn't necessarily saying my opinions, nor does the narrator have my personality. They are simply a persona.

3) Always look out for minor cursing even if there isn't any.

4) Headcanon: Sam dyes her hair black with environmentally safe dyes.

5) Other: This became very meta when I wrote this, and the fourth wall is gone. It's broken into shambles to never be repaired again. Basically the narrator is very self-aware and that you guys should run while you can if you're against that type of thing.

And with that, let's begin!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. All rights go to Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman. Please support the official release.

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 ** _()IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_**

 **CHAPTER ONE**

 **Trop de Concentration: part 1**

 ** _()IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_** ** _IF()_**

Welcome, my precious readers, welcome to this self-destructive tale. If you're here, you must be excited to hear more. Why continue reading if you weren't… _curious_?

Don't deny it. You're curious to see what will occur, to know how our little halfa is doing, to pay witness to his fall from innocence and inevitable complete corruption. Some of you are excited to hear a potentially interesting tale, others sickened but can't find it in themselves to look away, and maybe there are people whom just want to see a nice little horror story that sends chills up their spine.

Am I wrong?

I'm not judging you, any of you. Truly, I'm not. How could if I'm telling this tale? That would make me a hypocrite, and I don't particularly fancy being one at the moment. Besides, your interest is just one of human kind's natural responses. Fascination with the abomination if you will. I don't judge humanity for being itself. I'm human, you're human, so let's enjoy our humanity together, darkness and all.

Just read and relax and let this story wash over you. If you want, grab a snack as if you're watching a new movie because - why not? Words create world and images and pictures just as much as screens can. So, let my words create the picture of madness, desperation, and _obsession._

Who knows? Maybe you can come out of this with a little bit more than a nice story to read. Maybe you can understand the nature of obsessions and addictions and apply them to real life, understanding those like smokers who have their own addictions, the clawing nicotine becoming puppeteers to their bodies and controlling them so thoroughly that only the few with the strongest of will power could ever hope to cut their strings.

Our little halfa's obsession works a bit differently than a smoker's addiction, a fact that we will come to discuss at a later date, but the main point still stands. Read. Think. And try to understand. If you do, you may learn something.

But remember. You may not do more than this because, my dear readers, you're simply spectators to this story. Nothing more, nothing less. In some universe, this tale might be another reality. It might be occurring thousands of years in the future, or back beyond a time where human kind can't even remember, or even be happening right at this second.

Again, who knows?

The multiverse is a strange and wonderful concept with time alternating abilities and fashions that's beyond human understanding. There are many Dannys with their own universes, and this is simply one of them, a mere retelling of the original story if you so choose to see it as such.

But enough of my musings. I know you didn't come here to hear me ramble. So, let's begin, shall we?

While our story started with a dramatic flair from before, the events that continued on were much less exciting. Sure, we still have our obsession corrupted Danny, but the beginning few weeks after getting his powers were much the same as our original tale. Although, it can be argued that no one particularly knows what truly happened in that first month and that I could, in fact, embellish on those few weeks…

I won't though. While no one knows the specifics regarding this time, it doesn't take much imagination what antics that ensued. No, the purpose of this story is to tell the tale of a different Danny. Repetition and familiarity have no place here.

See, while Danny technically had an obsession, at first, this fact didn't particularly show itself all too well. His ghost half was weak and unstable in those first few weeks, making itself more of a nuisance than an actual useable tool. The portal merely planted the seeds of obsession, and his ghost half's presence was only germinating.

If you want to make a metaphor out of it, think of Danny as the ground and the obsession as a weed, a deep rooted one to be exact. While the little spiky leaves of the unwanted plant weren't as obvious in the early days, the roots would spread quite steadily. By the time the actual weed would be noticeable, it would be far too late. The roots would have enraged themselves so deeply within the ground that even if someone wacked off the head of the weed, another one would simply pop up somewhere else. It would fester and grow until the only way to fix the earth would be if something drastic to occur, something that might inevitably cause irreversible damage to the innocent ground.

But in the beginning, a weed is just another plant, a particularly innocent one to the unknowing eye.

For now, however, we aren't even close to that point, so don't worry. We still have a lot to know, tell, and discover for ourselves.

Now, where to begin? See, Danny in his first two weeks was simply living out his life. At first, our little halfa was in denial of the situation, but he eventually coming to finally at least acknowledge his half-dead status. He gained support from his friends and saw their fearful eyes as they retold the accident to him from their point of view. Their bonds as friends strengthened and so on and so forth until they, eventually and unintentionally, started their long road of secrets, dangerous circumstances, and many sleepless nights as Team Phantom.

Nothing unusual, at least, nothing unusual for a universe such as this one.

Well, that is a bit of a lie. There were two things that were different. They were hardly noticeable at first. In fact, if Danny hadn't sat down with Sam and Tucker to test and discuss his powers that night, he never would have even thought about these two little facts.

First and less obviously, Danny's attention span… dwindled. He wasn't the most focused guy in the first place, but after the accident, if he had, in fact, been treated in a hospital, the doctors would have diagnosed him with Attention Deficit Disorder. It wasn't like the boy wasn't trying to concentrate on things, but it seemed that every time he tried to listen to a teacher in class, do his homework, or even do a simple task like tying his shoes, it seemed uninteresting to him. His mind would wonder off and concentrate on other things.

Many of you can probably see where I'm going with this.

Yes, when Danny's mind wondered he would think of five specific people, his two best friends, his sister, and his parents. Sometimes his mind thought specifically of them, what they were doing, how they looked that day, if they were doing okay, and so on. Other times, he would simply connect his friends and family to the current task he was doing. For example, in English class, they started discussing Moby Dick, and while Sam wasn't in his class, Danny's mind instantly thought of how she would support the whale rather than the revenge focused sailor.

While I say this, it's not very alarming for someone to be more focused on people familiar to them. Really, most would consider it normal, though not to the extent or instantaneousness that Danny's mind made these connections. However, it's his other new quirk that makes the first one more alarming.

It wasn't only his train of thought that focused on his family. His entire mind focused on them. They were _emphasized_.

Little details, he didn't see before. He noticed the silver specks glittering in Sam's eyes, the small indention on Tucker's nose where his glasses rested, the way Jazz's hair frizzled when she talked animatedly about psychology, his mom's freckles nearly unseen like small brush strokes on her face, and the tiny little scars running up and down his dad's fingers from countless hours in the lab. These minor details were suddenly so much more important than before, and Danny unconsciously noted every single one of them.

The five of them also seemed bolder, for lack of a better term, almost shining, and it made it harder to look at anything else. In class, it took all Danny's effort not to turn his head to just _look_ at one of his two friends. Because now, _now_ , he couldn't stop looking. Everyone looked like a blobbed blur in comparison to the goth and techno-geek. He would notice the way Sam's dyed hair fell into impossibly smooth waves or the small calluses on Tucker's fingers from tip tapping on his PDA all day or the small almost pouty, puff of Sam's shining lipstick covered lips when she was bored or the way the little hairs on Tucker's arms would stand on edge when they discussed something he found disgusting or...

This train of thought continued until someone or something forcibly snapped him out of it.

But mostly, it was their voices. Like a master calling their dog, each time one of their voices would pop up, he would instantly turn to them. The weird part, however, was that it wasn't their words that called to him, it was the way they spoke. The normalcy of it. They could ramble on and on about anything, psychology, ghosts, plants, meat, and Danny would just listen and be satisfied.

Sometimes when Sam and Tucker argued, Danny would stand in the background and simply listen to the inflections in their voices, the upward pitches of Sam and the frequent breaking of Tucker's pubescent shrills. He wasn't consciously trying to stay out of the conversation, and, really, he wasn't paying attention to what they were saying in the first place. However, when they were near, simply talking, being their normal selves, a wave of calm washed over him, making him relaxed and mellowed out.

It was the same with Jazz and his parents. The blur of psychological terms still went over his head, but the quick fire, excited, if slightly pretentious tones Jazz used didn't annoy him as much as they used too, instead filling him with an almost happy buzz. Every morning as he saw his parents try to create a new invention, their happy chatter had him unconsciously smiling and relaxing in his chair as he ate his morning cereal.

What Danny didn't notice was that his powers malfunctioned less when he was listening to his loved ones, the boy too focused on the tranquil, purr-like quality of their voices to make note of that little fact.

Of course, the three teens didn't think too much of these two new traits, both from Danny's inability to describe them properly and the nativity of their youth blinding them from the true gravity of the situation. They wrote them off as another ghost thing and focused on trying to control Danny's other, much more noticeable ghostly abilities and traits. While in retrospect, their lack of concern may seem irresponsible, in comparison to randomly turning invisible, defying gravity, and falling through floors, his seemingly minor attention issues weren't seen as issues as all.

Besides, other than conferring to Danny's parents, there wouldn't be much that the trio could do to stop the newly created halfa's fixation anyway.

So despite his new halfa status and the planted obsession, those first two weeks were mostly peaceful for Danny with only the occasional power malfunction disrupting his life. Strangely, everything was practically normal for the boy, or as normal as life as a Fenton could be.

'But,' you may be thinking frantically, 'the show didn't start until a month after Danny got his powers! Why do you keep saying two weeks?'

And to that I say… you're exactly right. But let me ask you this, do you think that all the ghosts waited a month to make their appearance?

…I didn't think so.

In the Ghost Zone, for a short period of time at the very least, the Fenton ghost portal was a thing of caution. Many thought the portal to be a rumor, a trap to lure in the naïve or stupid. Once it became clear from the more adventurous of ghosts that there was in fact one, many simply thought it was a long lasting natural portal, similar to the few appearing at the Human World equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. However, as time went on, it became obvious that it was in fact, _a permanent portal,_ and, of course, the only permanent portals anyone knew of were the Human World created ones, leading straight to some modern period of time.

Honestly, the ghosts didn't know what to do with this information.

On one hand, this portal was a chance to explore the Human World. Some ghosts were curious creatures, simply wanting to explore a world beyond the green, endless expanse they've known all their afterlives. Most other ghosts, in contrast, were sickeningly gleeful at the opportunity to explore the outside world. Many knew of Plasmius's portal but wanted to stay clear of the, at the time, first, one, and only halfa's wrath. However, this new portal provided a new opportunity to make their stand. For the few times ghosts had seen humans, it was obvious that they were fragile, easily corruptible creatures. In that regard, it was less of a question about _if_ they should go into the portal and take control of the human world but a matter of _when._

But, let it not be said that ghosts weren't cautious. The sentient ghosts had some sense of self preservation, despite the fact that they were, in fact, dead. Though, it may have been less of a self-preservation instinct and more of a 'I don't want to be caught and experimented on' moment of common sense. After all, _someone_ had to have built that portal. For all they knew, the instant one of them rushed out in their world conquering, human scaring spree, they could be captured and…

Well, I think you can fill in the blank. You're smart like that.

Besides, the portal was in Walker's territory; no one particularly wanted to chance examining it lest they be locked up thousands of years. Again, self-preservation. The unrealistic potentials of world domination and eternal glory were only minor temptations in comparison to the very real possibility of either being captured by scientists or the Warden ghost.

Even as I say this, it was inevitable, that a ghost would eventually find their way through the portal. Two weeks after the accident in their usual migration through the Ghost Zone, a swarm of ectopusses made their way through Walker's territory to get to their next nesting ground in another section in the Ghost Zone.

Being insentient, unknowing creatures that they were, the twenty ectoplasmic animalistic ghosts couldn't account for the Fenton portal being in the way of their usual path. Nor could the three, more distracted ectopusses help themselves, as they traveled into the swirling green of the Fenton ghost portal.

And it is _here_ where we _truly_ begin.

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AN: Word Count: 2500 (Not including intro, outro, or title)

I'm experimenting with my writing, so I'm doing something a little different from usual. Tell me what you guys think! Also, I unintentionally lied. The rest of the story will be dramatic. Whoops.

I also made coverart so… yay? Really though, what do you guys think of it? It's very representational. Of what? Well, this chapter kind of explained it (and yes I created the cover myself :D).

Thanks for reading and again for your support! As I said before, the rest of the chappy will be posted once I get inspiration. Sorry for the kind of cliff hanger. Really, I am, but I wanted to post something for this story. Anyway, thanks again for reading, and See you next time!

~LunagaleMaster


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